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Bradford
junior Thomas Wilt battles Tri-Village sophomore Austin Bruner
for the ball during the
Roaders game with the Patriots Friday. Bradford
won the future Cross County Conference
game, 40-27. CNO Photos by Don
Selanders, goroaders.com
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Bradford defense stands tall on senior night
Roaders earn third straight win
By George Starks
BRADFORD- “Tri-Village is a nice, upcoming team and we were fortunate
to come up with this win tonight,” said Bradford coach Dave McFeely
after his Railroaders topped Tri-Village 40-27Friday.
It was a game that represented a preview to the Cross County Conference
in 2017.
Bradford came in riding a modest two game winning streak while
Tri-Village was looking to make it two in a row and get back to .500 on
the season at 4-4.
On a night when the Roaders defense would prove to be the difference
maker in the end, it was the Roaders that came up with a huge victory
over Tri-Village to go to 3-5 on the season.
With the score knotted ate 27-27 and the Patriots with the ball at
their own 39, it was junior Andrew Branson that got Bradford on the
right track.
Looking at a second down and six, Tri-Village quarterback Johnny Wilson
dropped back to pass.
Branson stepped in front of the intended receiver, running the ball
back for a pick six score and giving the Roaders a 34-27 advantage with
8:32 left in the game.
On its next possession, Tri-Village was once again victimized by the
interception.
This time it was linebacker Josh Phillips that put a end to the
Patriots comeback, taking the ball to the T-V 40.
Four plays later, junior Hunter Prekal put the nail in the Pats coffin
with an 11 yard run at the3:09 mark and giving the home team a 40-27
victory.
“Both those interceptions turned the tide of the game,” said McFeely.
“Tonight was a big win for the kids. It was three wins in a row for us
and the kids found out how to close a game out. We go to Toledo next
week and I told them this was our Michigan game and our Big 10
championship game is in Toledo next week.”
With two consecutive wins under the belt, the Roaders came in ready to
play and hungry for another win.
“Our kids have been ready the last three weeks,” McFeely pointed out.
“We sputtered a little bit last week at Jefferson but came out of it
with a 31-2 win but our defense was the difference in this game. That
is a good football team (T-V) and we had to earn everything that we
gottonight.”
On offense, the Roaders struggled at times but recorded 240 yards of
offense in the second half, 204 coming on the ground.
“Our offense has been super the last three weeks,” quipped McFeely.
“We’ve scored a lot of points in the last three weeks and the forty
tonight may have been a two or three year high. I give all the credit
to the assistant coaches and the seniors on the football team. We have
17 lettermen coming back next year and we started two freshmen tonight.”
Things looked good for the Patriots in the beginning of the game.
Kicking off to Bradford, kicker Jared Buckley bounced the ball off a
Bradford player and the Pats were in business at the Roaders 48.
Five plays later, it was senior Gavin Richards going in from 23 yards
out with 9:57 left in the opening quarter.
Bradford evened things up with 24.5 second remaining in the frame as
senior Dillon Reck plunged in from a yard out.
The Patriots came right back at the 11:21 point of the second on a 27
yard run by Wilson and it was 13-7 at that point.
On its next possession, Bradford marched 68 yards on 10 plays, capped
off by a three yard run by Penkal.
The score remained 14-13 going into the break as the Roaders clung to a
one point lead.
Tri-Village roared out of the locker room as Wilson hit Richards for a
70 yard bomb on the very first play and a 19-14 advantage with 11:38
left in the quarter.
Not to be outdone on its senior night, Bradford stormed back with an 86
yard drive and a 33 yard score on a run from Reck, giving the Roaders a
21-19 advantage with 6:55 left in the stanza.
The Pats would go up 27-21 with 34.4 seconds left in the stanza on
another big pass play.
This time Wilson connected with Ricker for 82 yards and a 27-21 lead
with 12 minutes left in the game.
Bradford would get even at the 8:57 mark on a 32 yard pass from Branson
to Penkal.
After that, it was the Bradford defense that finished the story for the
night.
It was a simple case of not making the needed plays at the proper time
for the Patriots.
“We had the plays to win this game but we didn’t take advantage of
them. Other than the opening kickoff, we didn’t get the job done,” said
Patriots coach Jason Schondelmyer. “We’ve been that way in all of the
losses that were close all year. We’re still not there where we need to
be strength wise. We just gave up too much ground and we don’t hold our
ground. When the other team runs off tackle and runs right at you, we
can stop them. We need more confidence in knowing that we can come up
there as fast as we can and stop them. We need to get to the point
where we can hit people and know we can survive.”
With both teams holding 3-5 marks, the Roaders will head to Toledo to
square off with Northwood , looking to make it four straight wins while
the Patriots will host Crestview Academy from Cincinnati for senior
night.
Both games will start at 7 pm.
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Junior
Christian Ricker shows the disgust in himself after dropping a big
pass in the fourth quarter against Bradford.
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Senior Mason Justice runs for big yards in the second half against
Tri-Village. Justice was
silenced in the first half but ran for 80
yards and a touchdown in final 24 minutes of play.
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Senior
Gavin Richards takes the ball down field for positive
yards against Bradford. Richards
had a huge night for the Patriots with
124 yards receiving and 24 yards rushing
with two touchdowns for his
efforts.
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